New Delhi: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee would inaugurate the 42nd ConsultativeCommittee Meeting(CCM) of Colombo Plan in New Delhi on Wednesday. Over 150 delegates from 26 member countries and other 33 observer countries and organizations are expected to participate in the CCM, to be held on February 10-11. India has earlier hosted the consultative committee Meetings in 1953 and 1972. New Delhi has proud privilege to host the current CCM coinciding with the Diamond Jubilee year of the movement. 

The purpose of the Colombo Plan is co-operative economic development in South and South-East Asia. Again, as its motto “Planning Prosperity Together” declares, the Colombo Plan is a collaborative effort of nations to bring about the well-being of people through self-help and mutual-help of countries in the region.

The idea of launching the Colombo Plan germinated at a meeting of Commonwealth Foreign Ministers in Colombo in January 1950, where the ministers concentrated their attention on the needs of South and South-East Asia and the strategies to address them. The final communiqué emphasized the need for the furtherance of economic development in the area. The recommendations inter alia included to establish a Consultative Committee “to focus world attention on the development problems of the area and to provide a framework within which an international co-operative effort could be promoted”.

Over the years, the Colombo Plan grew from the group of seven Commonwealth nations like Australia, UK, Canada, Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand and Pakistan into an international organization of 26, including non-commonwealth nations. The current member countries are: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran,Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan,Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, USA and Vietnam.